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Intelligent Automation Reshaping the future of work with robots

Knowledge series | Chapter 1

2 | Reshaping the future of work with robots

ContentTable of

Reset business expectations | 06

Mainsprings of this new normal at global business service centersBeing future ready | 04Technology to drive the change | 05Intelligent automation journey | 24

For any business organization, how effectively and efficiently the combined potential of people, process and technology can be harnessed,

is pivotal to success. The focus on delivering transformational value at an optimized cost was also the reason why many back office functions moved their operations to low cost geographies.

A constant focus on driving efficiencies and advent of automation promises to fundamentally change and transform the value quotient that is now

being demanded by businesses. The potential that technology offers is undoubtedly immense and some of the leading global business services ( GBS) centers have already adopted these into their operations and are reaping the enhanced benefits that stem from it. From my interactions, I have seen this journey of intelligent automation as being exhilarating for our clients.

Beyond the obvious benefit of lower labour costs, In this report, we have tried to articulate how we see the transformation happening and how diverse businesses and especially the back-office centers can make best use of the opportunity offered by these new age automation technologies.

This knowledge document is focused on RPA as it the only the beginning on the Intelligent Automation journey. The document explains EY IA framework which will allow the enterprises to gradually move from RPA to machine based learning to cognitive capabilities culminating in Artificial Intelligence taking root. The report also reflects insights from other leading global business services centers who we spoke to, illustrating their experiences from their journey towards Intelligent Automation.

Read on to learn more about the journey that companies will need to make to capitalize on the benefits of Intelligent Automation. We will be releasing knowledge primer on each IA area covered in the journey as enterprises adopt them at scale.

Foreword

M il an S hethPartner & National LeaderRobotics & Cognitive Practice [email protected]

3Reshaping the future of work with robots |

The journey of intelligent automation ( IA) | 08

Conquering the first frontier in IA: RPA | 12 Making it happen | 22

Back-office to business technology center | 20

Automation technologies - Basic definitions | 10

RPA case studies | 14The RPA journey of a large TMT company*The RPA journey of a global transportation major* Preparing people to embrace automation*

Getting the RPA journey right! | 19

The old ways of managing and supporting business processes are undergoing a paradigm shift. The old edifice of back-office support system is being dismantled to make way for the new conception, made possible by the advent of disruptive technologies and artificial intelligence, which together promise to bring in speed, ease and significant cost optimization. This transformative step-up promises to considerably ease the managing of businesses while introducing minimalism in place of myriad complex processes, which are the norm today. And as new technologies, especially RPA, demonstrate their transformative potential, becoming increasingly refined and smarter with time, they are making enterprises take note of the benefits that could result from elevating their business processing centers on the technology curve. Clearly, the journey to the future — from back-office rooms to business technology and engagement centers — is underway. Organizations are indeed gearing up to be future ready!

B eing future read y


Technology to drive the change

Centralizing common processes, services and functions across

the organization

Driving standardization of processes across the globe, enabling

repeatability and rapid deployment of processes and services

Optimizing processes and process improvements

through lean and six sigma

Applying intelligent automation technologies for process automations

Consolidation/ Centralization

Standardization Optimization Automation

Aided by groundbreaking technologies and remarkable advancements in robotics, back-office operations are being transformed into future-ready business support centers with demonstrable gains in efficiency and productivity while cutting down on process complexities. And the change is not piecemeal. It is a complete metamorphosis!

It is catapulting all back-office support systems to an altogether new platform where technology and automation play a defining role in providing a demonstrably faster and more efficient support system. This system can handle routine and repetitive work, with human resources primarily engaged in delivering insights to provide a qualitatively higher value addition to decision makers. More and more companies have now begun their journey to usher in transformative change.



Mainsprings of this new normal at the Global Business Service centers

Reset business expectations1


The journey of Global business services (GBS) as a tool for efficiency has now reached an inflection point. More so than ever, there are existential questions for traditional transaction processing centers, bringing into spotlight the question: Are there other levers to demonstrate efficiency and effectiveness?

With advent of intelligent automation and robots as part of digital workforce, the expectations are now definitively reset.

E x pec tation = V al ue @ S peed

The need for faster turnaround Time has always been at a premium and more so now. In a highly competitive and fast-paced business environment, enterprises want quick and real-time support. For that to happen, the back-office support system has to be transformed. But while transformation is desirable, it has to be swift. Organizations have little patience for any changes that take long to materialize, even if promising measurable productivity gains.

Demonstrable productivity gainsThe new-age processing centers have demonstrated significant gains in productivity while cutting down on processes. This is encouraging more and more organizations to transform their operations architecture.

The demise of “lift and shift”Enterprises want real change; simple cosmetic or physical changes are not acceptable and will not suffice. Enterprises have to be convinced of demonstrable gains in every sense if they are to swing over to a new platform. So, a simple change of geography for the back-office support center or mere adoption of more technologies is not going to be a sufficient motivation for change unless it provides disruptive demonstrable talent or value. As a next step, when the work indeed is shifted, it will necessarily need to be optimized right from the beginning.

Back-office centers as real and additional value providersExpectations are elevated. Decision makers do not want to settle with a placid support system but expect a proactive value provider. They want that something extra which will provide them with additional insights, information and trends to take more informed and better decisions for the organization to stay ahead of the competition. Thus, apart from efficiency and effectiveness, decision makers want an a GBS to focus equally on the third “E,” i.e., engagement. So, while automation and robotics will focus on efficiency and effectiveness, the people in these future centers will focus on engagement with the stakeholders by providing insights and being the chief support system for brainstorming myriad issues.



The journey of intelligent automation (IA)

2


Automation with human intelligence or automation with a human touch is redefining the way tasks are being allocated and performed in an enterprise. To begin with, IA was primarily used in the manufacturing processes and later as bits and pieces in other functions. But now, it is increasingly becoming an integral part of various enterprise functions across the board. Organizations are putting in place a wholesome architecture of IA systems because of its crucial potential to be the critical vehicle for effecting enterprise-wide transformation. The time to embark on the “ IA journey” has indeed arrived.

To automate or not to automate is no longer a question anymore. Enterprises will have to integrate IA for their own benefit and survival, with the numbers of such entities growing steadily. Over the last two years, there has been a notable increase in the number of enterprises adopting end-user process automation via the robotics process automation ( RPA) route, which is the foundation block of the IA journey. The primary stimulus for this new enthusiasm stems from the appreciable double-digit improvement in productivity across organizations that have implemented RPA.

RPA technologies have evolved from being just piecemeal isolated automation installations to a comprehensive connected enterprise-class digital

The advent of disruptive digital and intelligent automation technologies is central to reset business expectations

Moving toward

P a s t F utur e1990s–2000s 2020+

A rtific ial I ntel l igenc e

P r es ent2015-2020

S up p or ts h uma n a ctions M imics h uma n a ctions Aug ments h uma n intel l ig ence M imics h uma n intel l ig ence

S D T RP A RP A

RP A

M L

M L

N L P S em antic s

RP A M L

N L P

N L G

S em antic s

S D T – Structured data interaction | R P A - Robotic process automation | N L P – Natural Language Processing | M L – Machin Learning | N L G – Natural Language Generation

automation solution. The old doubts and concerns around RPA’ s worthiness, manageability and security are also long gone as they have been ably addressed and significantly improvised. Today’s RPA architecture is much more robust, reliable and future ready.

IA tools are set to evolve further as they imbibe an augmented ability to mirror human intelligence. And as they become smarter, we will also see them undertake and perform more intelligent and complex tasks. This will further spur IA’ s adoption at an even higher level across functions — even across areas such as planning, budgeting, analysis and decisions making that were perceived to always remain within the preserve of only humans.

Organizations will continue to adopt more advanced automation technologies as they become smarter by acquiring more and more human intelligence and the ability to mimic human actions. IA will be applied across functions and boards, deeply impacting and transforming the way organizations work. Nonetheless, IA adoption calls for a well-deliberated, well-calibrated approach along with receptivity to continuous learning and change.

1 0 | Reshaping the future of work with robots

A utom ation tec hnol ogiesBasic definitions

1 2 3 4S tr uctur ed d a ta inter a ction ( SDI)

These are traditional systems where the integration is through exchange of information that is well structured. Examples include integration of systems through relational data base management systems ( RDBMS) , data transformation tools, and application programming interfaces ( APIs) and web services.

R obotic P r oces s Automa tion ( RPA)

It involves automation of standardized and rules-driven system-based activities using scripts and other methods to support efficient business processes. It is suitable in scenarios where it is too expensive or inefficient for humans to execute a task or a process.

M a ch ine L ea r ning ( ML)

It involves systems that learn through handling variations that are not anticipated upfront. These systems get trained on the go by assimilating learnings from the data and decisions, and may make simple predictions or classifications backed by algorithms. A simple case could be a scenario where a well-defined identifier needs to be mapped to more descriptive/free form text, e.g., mapping of a vendor name that appears on an invoice to the vendor ID in the system. The vendor name may appear in various forms.

N a tur a l L a ng ua g e P r oces s ing ( NLP)

NLP uses statistical methods and learning algorithms to analyze text and unstructured information to understand the meaning, sentiment and intent. A sample use case could be the customer service function, where a customer raises a support ticket in form of free text, which is analyzed to understand and determine the levels of urgency, sentiment or frustration and then determine the ticket severity/priority.

descriptive/free form text, e.g., mapping of a vendor name that appears on an invoice to the vendor ID in the system. The vendor in the system. The vendor

descriptive/free form text, e.g., mapping of a vendor name that appears on an invoice to the vendor ID in the system. The vendor name may appear in various

could be a scenario where

needs to be mapped to more descriptive/free form text, e.g., mapping of a vendor

in the system. The vendor name may appear in various

needs to be mapped to more descriptive/free form text,

function, where a customer

needs to be mapped to more descriptive/free form text,

forms.

invoice to the vendor ID in the system. The vendor name may appear in various name may appear in various name may appear in various forms. name may appear in various

transformation tools, and application programming

in the system. The vendor in the system. The vendor name may appear in various forms.

in the system. The vendor name may appear in various forms.


5 6 7Natural Language Generation (NLG)

It is a technology that helps generate text as we speak or write from structured information such as fields and numerals. It is largely applied where sections of financial analysis reports and insights are generated, e.g., numbers reflecting a company’s performance.

Chatbots and virtual agents These are systems that can interpret voice/text in free form (chat) to simply respond with standard pre-defined answers. A simple example is the customer service function where a chatbot could respond to queries. These chatbots can continuously learn and build vocabulary to interpret unstructured information being directed to them.

AI-Decision Systems These are systems that employ an array of technologies, algorithms and models to solve complex and inter-related problems to make decisions. These may be driven by deep learning systems and cognitive capabilities to recognize patterns, and apply statistical models and algorithms to make choices and decisions. These could also potentially address multiple decision points, e.g., determining the demand for certain products for a geography/location based on weather forecasts, thereby helping decide the inventory to be housed in a store and determine the best possible fulfilment center location and route to be chosen for the fulfilment.



Conquering the first frontier in IA: RPA

3


Change is inevitable, and organizations definitely recognize this fact. That is why they constantly seek ways to be future ready by improvising processes to drive efficiencies, engaging better with stakeholders to benefit from multiple feedbacks and simply being open to the idea of embracing change. And today, digital technologies and artificial intelligence are the principal vehicles for effecting change, while deploying RPA and advanced automation (IA) at various functions is fast becoming the norm. IA is indeed helping organization to become agile entities by inducing capabilities and speed hitherto inconceivable.

Intelligent Automation is very much at the heart of back-office operationsTraditional automation technologies integrated the flow of information across applications at the back end at

In general, RPA can process

transactions at a much faster pace than humans can

RPA can significantly

reduce errors otherwise

introduced by manual effort

Robots are available for work 24/7

and there is no absenteeism

Typically, robot license costs

are much lower than the average

cost of human workforce

A robust audit trail can be

created for all the activities that robots perform

It is much easier to turn

on and turn off capacity, unlike with a human

workforce. RPA is very valuable in operations

where there are significant peaks

and valleys

RPA is a lightweight enterprise

automation technology that can sit alongside

the existing IT landscape.

Besides, the IT skill requirements

for deploying automations are

fairly lower than for other enterprise

technology implementations

Typically, RPA can drive about 20%–

25% of FTE savings. RPA automations

can be developed in matter of weeks and therefore business

benefits start flowing within a

short period of time. Payback on RPA

programs is typically less than a year

Key drivers of value include

S peed of proc essing

Red uc ed c ost

Robust trac eabil ity

H igh flexibility

E ase of d epl oy m ent

I m prov ed ac c urac y

H eal thy RO I and S horter

P ay bac k

H igh av ail abil ity

Beyond establishing the quick wins and making this journey potentially self-funded, RPA-led transformation is set to pave the way for the adoption of more advanced automation solutions (Intelligent Automation)

the database level based on broader rules that applied to the business. These were typically large technology transformation programs that entailed large investments and elongated timelines (sometime spanning multiple years). However, these did not usually cater to task specificity at the end user level, which called for human interventions to work across multiple applications and information from the desktop — the swivel chair activities.

Robotics Process Automation (RPA) takes this back-end automation to the end-user level with the ability to further automate repetitive manual tasks associated with the swivel-chair activities, integrating applications and information through the front-end while leveraging existing integrations between systems.

RPA has also laid the foundation of the beginning of the next wave of automation — the IA journey (Refer Intelligent automation journey page 24) RPA helps deliver business value in a timeframe of months, enabling the journey to potentially be “self-funded,” anchored on huge savings in terms of the time and resources.


The RPA journey of a large TMT leader* 1 .

RP A c ase stud ies

We interacted with and studied some leading global organizations across diverse verticals that have implemented or are at various stages of implementing a complete architecture of RPAs for harnessing the major benefits while addressing the challenges occurring along their RPA journey.

H ow has y our RP A j ourney been so far? As an SSC, we support core functions such as finance, HR, customer and network operations for our parent entity. We embarked on the RPA journey with a clear objective to increase the quality of business operation, optimize cost and improve key performance indicators across these functions. The learning curve was steep with the initial set of proof of concepts. We realized that it is important to identify compelling use case and ensure alignment with business. In conjunction with this, it is critical to have an RPA roadmap in place that can help a system scale up from a small initial POC to large-scale production, in order to derive significant business value.

*Responses from the Head of Strategic Projects for the company

H ow d id y ou pl an and im pl em ent the RP A program ? This was a strategic program for us because of the focus on delivering to 26 markets across the world. Our RPA rollout spanned multiple phases:S ta g e 1 : Identifying areas/functions within the business where RPA opportunities exist while ascertaining the convenience and various stages of migration; subsequently following up with a process development proposal to create a business case and receptivity for the RPA programS ta g e 2 : Delivering automation solutions by partnering with IT and other departments, so as to make RPA a truly collaborative group initiativeS ta g e 3 : Business operations absorbing the changes and focusing on “ keeping the lights on” after processes are automated; this is the stage where the success of the program can be truly determined

1 5Reshaping the future of work with robots |

H ow do you see the road ahead? We had undertaken a broad-based RPA initiative with a process-based mindset and are now 18 months into the journey. We have derived a great understanding of various architectural structures of automation tools, enabling us to evaluate and classify automation-ready processes under different classes of automation:C l ass 1 Processes requiring basic automation involving macros, scripting and screen scraping that help with point desktop automation

C l ass 2 RPA of rule-based work across multiple applications, including Citrix, mainframes with wider reach, complex steps and very quick design and delivery

C l ass 3 Cognitive and AI automation that deal more with unstructured data, delivering significant value; we look at leveraging these as we move forward into the future

W hat were the key l earnings from y our j ourney that c oul d be im bibed by enterprises whil e im pl em enting RP A ? We had a strong demonstrable track record of POCs. H owever, we gained the most valuable experience when POCs moved to live production. The aspects that need to be considered while undertaking RPA are as follows:

T h e f a mil ia r iz a tion p r oces s Familiarization lowers resistance to change. To smoothen the process of transition and enhance receptivity among employees, it is essential for project owners to encourage process teams to familiarize and experiment with RPA tools with an eye on comprehending and appreciating the opportunities and the tools’ limitations.

T r a ining a nd ca p a bil ity buil d ing RPA requires the right team, involving a combination of strong technical skills and deep operations expertise.

I T inf r a s tr uctur e ma na g ement Though there are RPA tools that operate on individual desktops, these tools have limited ability to take different data feeds. RPA tools work best on a virtualized desktop environment, with appropriate scaling and a business continuity setup.

G ov er na nce f r a mew or k Robust governance policies underpin a successful robotics implementation. Adequate controls must be present to ensure regulatory compliance, user access management and authorization and protection from cyber threats.

C os ting a nd f und ing myth s RPA can help deliver business value in a short span of time and make the journey potentially “ self-funded.” We have been able to realize benefits even as we automate processes located in tier II locations, which are already cost competitive.


*As shared by its Head of Process Excellence

W hat were the trigger points for y our RP A j ourney ?

The biggest reason was to get rid of myriad complexities and introduce simplified minimal processes. Our GIC has achieved considerable maturity in scale and breadth of services over the long years of operations. It has always been at the forefront of embracing IT innovation, so much so that our organizational journeys on IT and automation at GIC are inseparable. We have gone through waves of automation dating back to the age of mainframes, where we built complex logistics systems for our global organization on mainframes and implemented ERP. In the early 1990s, during the PC era, there were plenty of desktop-based productivity tools that emerged and non-ERP systems proliferated, with virtually total absence of automation.

As we consolidated our business processes into a GBS in the early 2000s, equipped with tools such as V isual Basic and .NET, we started again on the automation journey and have never looked back since. H owever, too much of automation made our IT systems very complex — we had more than 3,000 applications. Since we had disjointed pieces of ERP, apps, Excels and people, this created a very

The RPA journey of a global transportation leader*2 .

challenging situation for our IT teams. We were introduced to RPA about 18 months back with an expectation around RPA delivering a sense of structure and sanity to our overall architecture.

W hat were y our earl y sentim ents about the prospec ts of m igrating to a new d om ain?

To begin with, we were skeptical about how different RPA will be from other tools such as macros that execute recorded key strokes. But we were excited to see that it democratized automation. With legacy systems not keeping up with evolving business integration needs, the value that RPA has brought in has been very important. The speed with which we can now deliver this integration is impressive. Today, we can deliver innovation with industrial strength without losing control. More importantly, RPA now helps us create a flow across systems and business processes.

H owever, the journey has had its own set of challenges. Some of these can be attributed to process selection, while others are to do with the expectations around it. While RPA automation is speedy, the upfront due-diligence and the post-automation effort to adapt and sustain do create a need for rigorous regimen.


W hat woul d be y our ad v ic e be to enterprises/C T O s c ontem pl ating to c om m enc e their j ourney toward RP A ?

The key points to consider while undertaking a RPA journey include the following:

• Assemble a squad of multi-skilled personnel with process understanding and technology expertise: There are no pristine black belt roles anymore and so is the case with a pure-play technology person. An individual focused on processes needs to understand technology, while a technology person now needs to learn processes.

• Comfort with technology is important: As we automate extensively, our dependence on technology becomes almost absolute. So, we need to be aware of and plan for that. People have to be comfortable with technology and need to manage the overall flow and not just individual automation.

• Be ready for digital workforce management: The advent of virtual robotics workforce will drive transformation in workforce management policies. RPA helps bring about change in the leadership style requirement from purely people leadership to thinking about how to manage bots (bot leadership skills) as well.

• Enable a robust governance framework: A lack of strong governance framework can lead to ineffective and inefficient robotics implementation, adversely affecting business processes and the ability to achieve business objectives.

How do you see the road ahead? Over the last many years, including the last couple of years of our RPA-led automation journey, we have automated all rule-based and mundane activities. We aspire to scale this up by 10 times. The RPA journey enables us to implement the flow across systems and business processes and at the same time helps develop a good understanding of the underlying processes. This lays a good foundation for us to build up further transformation.


*As shared by a leading tech company

F a mil ia r iz a tion w ith th e oncoming d is r up tion

We always believed that we are a people company in the technology business. We acknowledge that our focus on automation will disrupt processes and people. So, while the strategy was pushed from the top, we knew the ideas had to come from the floor. We really engaged with the operations team and they were well aligned with what was coming, how they can participate and what to expect. This was a critical step to prepare people to embrace change while diminishing the fear factor.

T r a ining a nd d ev el op ing ta l ent

We conducted a training program to help employees understand RPA and solicited ideas. The entire process was democratic, with people on the floor coming up with ideas for automation. Next, we started building an in-house talent pool and trained the subject-matter experts ( SMEs) to undertake trainings in their respective process areas. We also defined a career path and created a differentiated pay structure to ensure we are able to retain people. All this helped break initial barriers and helped in a faster adoption of the RPA program.

Preparing people to embrace automation*3 .

P r oj ect ma p p ing a nd p r ep a r ing tr a iner s

We mapped out RPA projects that are ongoing and in the pipeline, and developed quarter-by-quarter visibility on the capacity that was being created so that this could be approved by the governing board. So far, we have been able to train 70+ people from the business on RPA. These people now have opportunities to move across the organization, to address the specific points of demand.

H ow do you see the road ahead? SSCs are gearing up for enhanced RPA to further scale up the technology curve by adopting more intelligent automation technologies in their business operations. This flows from a clear recognition of the vital role that automation technology can play in helping GICs augment their position as the center of innovation.

P eop l e a r e th e big g es t s up p or t f or us h er ing in ch a ng e but ma x imum r es is ta nce, cov er t or ex p l icit, a l s o flows from them. We just need to a p p r ecia te th is f a ct a nd w or k out a p l a n th a t cr ea tes a n env ir onment of trust and receptivity. To prepare p eop l e to embr a ce ch a ng e, th e following points are useful.


10 key essentials for successful RPA implementationWhile RPA may sound simple and easy to implement, it does require thorough planning, coordinated action and lots of rigor for successful and speedy implementation. Thus, it is very important to identify the right RPA program and implement it properly. Organizations may do well to follow the key ground rules as below.

While RPA as a concept may be understood, showcasing RPA through a quick workable pilot project will trigger enthusiasm and help ward off cynicism.

Change is often resisted even if it is for common and individual good. Thus RPA-led transformation requires strong sponsorship and support. It is also important to identify functional leaders and opinion makers right at the beginning of this journey to implement RPA adoption seamlessly.

The success of first steps will have a significant bearing on the outcome of this migratory journey. So, choosing the first set of processes is very critical for the entire program to succeed. Initial processes have to be the ones where success is almost inbuilt while inconvenience or the pain of transition is minimal. Once the initial phase meets success, there will certainly be greater organizational support and receptivity.

Promise less, deliver more — this age-old wisdom holds true here too. It helps to set realistic expectations around the potential benefits. So, avoid creating a hype or euphoria around what RPA can achieve for the business or individuals. Let people be impressed with the end results.

Chances of success increase with smaller manageable sets of automations than large and complex ones. Follow an iterative process of fine-tuning the solution through build-test-deploy procedure.

Actual benefits flow in only on productive redeployment of the saved hours. It is important to track actual savings on the baseline.

Institutionalize structure and governance to productively manage automations that have been delivered, and prioritize and deliver on the pipeline of opportunities. Adopt a holistic strategy to build, re-build and sustain talent.

Be on alert to identify and explore tools that can complement and strengthen (e.g., OCR) RPA implementation.

Value from RPA has to be co-created by both the business and IT teams. Given the short bursts of implementation and launch of automations, it requires the business and IT to work in harmony, in the absence of which time lapse and resource wastage are bound to happen. For example, a large GIC organization of a global insurance company took just 7 days to automate a process but had to wait for 45 more days to address application access requirements for bots before rolling it out.

Invest efforts in building the right solution to address majority of the variations, hand-offs and process goals. Usually, 30% or less time is spent on actual BOT configuration.

Start with a proof of concept

Choose processes wisely

Identify and bring evangelizers on-board

Set the right expectations

Follow the quick win delivery methodology

Track and reap benefits simultaneously

Plan for sustainability

Leverage complementing tools

Make IT an integral part of the journey

Have a robust solution focus

Making the right start with Intelligent Automation

Succeeding with RPA!




Back-office to business technology center

4


Traversing the IA journey at the back-office operations center has to be purposeful and needs to be driven by a shared vision with the parent, helping determine the speed and choices that the GBS will have to make along this journey. This requires being in-sync with the GBS’s current position in the value chain and the target state it aspires to achieve.

The centers will need to synchronize all that automation has to offer into a coherent value proposition, the same way an orchestra conductor harmonizes disparate instrumental sounds into a beautiful musical composition.

Let the journey begin!The centers can simultaneously navigate up the value continuum as well as the automation maturity curve. With every automation technology experimentation, the journey along this path will open up new opportunities for scaling up the automation process, finally elevating and transforming the back-office support room to a new age digital business technology center.

High

Glo

bal B

usin

ess

Serv

ices

cen

ter

Valu

e Co

ntin

uum

Intelligent Automation Continuum

Low

RPANLP/Semantics/

NLGML AI

Efficient Doer

Business Technology Office

Value Partner

Back-Office

Transact

Analyze

Strategize

Effective Thinker



Making it happen5

2 3Reshaping the future of work with robots |

The key to achieving this transformation is embedded in the following actions:

S ta r t h ir ing for flexibility w ith a s tr es s

on tech nol og y l iter a cy a cr os s

a l l l ev el s

“ After embarking on RPA journey in our finance shared services, our recruitment strategy has changed from hiring only finance/accounting background people to a an equal mix of process analyst, automation engineers and accounting professionals,” noted the CFO of a global insurance company. We are also seeing shifts in talent strategy among several other organizations. Thus, no longer is domain-specific knowledge or singular technology skill alone sufficient. Building a robust operations center calls for personnel with a healthy familiarity with technology apart from core domain expertise.

I nv ol v e p eop l e to s ucceed

People’s identification with and ownership of the IA program is important. The back-office of a professional services firm successfully implemented robotics across more than 30 processes, which positively impacted the business outcomes. A three-week campaign as a follow-up to identify additional automation opportunities within the same team created a groundswell, generating ideas of a significant quantitative value.

P il ot tech nol og ies ex tens iv el y

Do not hesitate to roll out technologies across board but do so in a calibrated manner. It is also a myth that these are cost prohibitive — they are usually self-funding.

B uil d a p p etite f or tech nol og y

a nd ch a ng e

Catalyze change by building an activation model to continuously inspire the right appetite, attitude and behavior for adoption of automation.

J unk th e cur r ent

d a s h boa r d

Initiate and inspire discussions on business outcomes and the ultimate beneficiaries — the customers. The first step here is the articulation of the current value.

D emons tr a te v a l ue r a th er th a n s eek bud g ets

Do not seek exclusive budgets. Demonstrate value with the help of frugal investments and an entrepreneurial culture.

"The future belongs to those who see possibilities before they become obvious."

J ohn Scully

An integrated business–technology approach is critical to building future-ready operations centers.


I ntel l igent autom ation j ourney

Automates rule-based

transactional activities for processing,

manipulating data, triggering responses etc.

1 . RP A

Process: Standard/Rule-based | Information: Structured/Predictable

Back office processes such as F&A, IT maintenance, HR and procurement, and some service operations. For example, receipt of purchase orders over email and creation of PO in the system

RPA and OCR technologies

Choice of processes, business, IT and leadership support, and speed

Automate the “do” part of work. Remove the “BOT” out of the humans

Robust process selection framework; Process re-engineering/RPA solutioning and RPA technology capability; Strong program and change management capability

2 . S im pl e

m ac hine l earning

Process: Standard/Rule-based | Information: Structured/Unpredictable

Back office and mid office processes with variations in information and rules. For example: Insurance claims award based on available documents and past data on similar claims; Mining database of previous orders placed by customers and predicting future requirements

RPA and Machine Learning

Choice of processes, strength of historical data, accuracy and speed

Automate simple “think” part of work

Process re-engineering and solutioning capability; ML algorithm/tools application understanding; Data-centric organization with continuous focus to learn and improve; Change management

Provides for making simple decisions

based on data mining (past learnings)


Process: Less standard | Information: Unstructured

Back office, mid office and front office, particularly useful in customer-facing functions to capture requirements and feedback. For example: Making sense of customer tweets, blogs, FB updates and face recognition to understand sentiments and provide suitable options; A virtual agent handles queries while continuously learning and improving on the responses

RPA, ML, NLP, NLG and Semantics

Strength of keywords; accuracy is very important

Automate simple “analyze” part of work

Process re-engineering and solutioning capability; Capability to work with NLP/NLG and other applications tools; Ability to adapt and respond to new information and insights; Change management

3 . C ognitiv e

Making sense of unstructured

information input through data

mining, pattern recognition and natural language

processing

Process: Standard/Non-standard | Information: Structured/Unstructured

Across the enterprise: Integrated business processes that are less standard, complex, interdependent and involve structured and unstructured information; Taps into capabilities of Cognitive, NLP, NLG, Machine Learning, Expert Systems to execute complex processes. For example: In HR hiring processes, identifying skillsets required for a particular job posting based on historical information and ML capabilities and posting the jobs on multiple sites; screening CVs using NLP capabilities and profiling candidates based on information in the social media, to assess first-level fitment; conducting first-level assessment using chatbots; using free-text; and then scheduling the subsequent round of discussion through the AI system.

RPA, NLP, NLG, semantics, OCR, BPMs, Service Orchestration, Expert Systems and Analytics

Strength of the ecosystem — feeder systems, algorithm and orchestration; Accuracy and integrity of processes

Enable the “decide” part of work

Deep solutioning capability and expertise in data science; Robust information flow across systems and functions; Expertise in deploying AI-based expert systems; Change management to allow for systems/information driven decision-making

4 . A rtific ial

I ntel l igenc e

Intelligent automation

solutions that can make

decisions and call up on intelligent

automation services to

execute

Process and information characteristics Use cases Technologies Critical success factors Business impact Organization capability



Our

offi

ces Ahmedabad

2nd floor, Shivalik Ishaan Near C.N. VidhyalayaAmbawadiAhmedabad - 380 015Tel: + 91 79 6608 3800Fax: + 91 79 6608 3900

Bengaluru6th, 12th & 13th floor“UB City”, Canberra BlockNo.24 Vittal Mallya RoadBengaluru - 560 001Tel: + 91 80 4027 5000 + 91 80 6727 5000 + 91 80 2224 0696Fax: + 91 80 2210 6000

Ground Floor, ‘A’ wingDivyasree Chambers # 11, O’Shaughnessy RoadLangford Gardens Bengaluru - 560 025Tel: +91 80 6727 5000Fax: +91 80 2222 9914

Chandigarh1st Floor, SCO: 166-167Sector 9-C, Madhya MargChandigarh - 160 009 Tel: +91 172 331 7800Fax: +91 172 331 7888

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Delhi NCRGolf View Corporate Tower BSector 42, Sector RoadGurgaon - 122 002Tel: + 91 124 464 4000Fax: + 91 124 464 4050

3rd & 6th Floor, Worldmark-1IGI Airport Hospitality DistrictAerocity, New Delhi - 110 037Tel: + 91 11 6671 8000 Fax + 91 11 6671 9999

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Jamshedpur1st Floor, Shantiniketan Building Holding No. 1, SB Shop Area Bistupur, Jamshedpur – 831 001Tel: +91 657 663 1000BSNL: +91 657 223 0441

Kochi9th Floor, ABAD NucleusNH-49, Maradu POKochi - 682 304Tel: + 91 484 304 4000 Fax: + 91 484 270 5393

Kolkata22 Camac Street3rd Floor, Block ‘C’Kolkata - 700 016Tel: + 91 33 6615 3400Fax: + 91 33 2281 7750

Mumbai14th Floor, The Ruby29 Senapati Bapat MargDadar (W), Mumbai - 400 028Tel: + 91 22 6192 0000Fax: + 91 22 6192 1000

5th Floor, Block B-2Nirlon Knowledge ParkOff. Western Express HighwayGoregaon (E)Mumbai - 400 063Tel: + 91 22 6192 0000Fax: + 91 22 6192 3000

PuneC-401, 4th floor Panchshil Tech ParkYerwada (Near Don Bosco School)Pune - 411 006Tel: + 91 20 6603 6000Fax: + 91 20 6601 5900

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